Ratt v. Corrigan

989 F.Supp.2d 550

Leo RATTÉ, a minor by his Next Friend, Claire Zimmerman; Claire Zimmerman; and Christopher Ratté, Plaintiffs,

v.Maura CORRIGAN; City of Detroit; Celeste Reed; Scott Hall; Richard Knox; Sualyn Holbrook; Cherita Turner–Royster; and Judy A. Hartsfield, Defendants.

Case No. 11–11190.

United States District Court,

E.D. Michigan,

Southern Division.

Signed Nov. 26, 2013.

Matthew J. Lund, Robert C. Ludolph, Adam A. Wolfe, Pepper Hamilton, Southfield, MI, Amy L. Sankaran, University of Michigan Law School, Ann Arbor, MI, Michael J. Steinberg, American Civil Liberties Union Fund of Michigan, Detroit, MI, for Plaintiffs.

Calvert A. Bailey, Detroit City Law Department, Detroit, MI, Joseph T. Froehlich, Mark E. Donnelly, Michigan Department of Attorney General, Lansing, MI, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER SEVERING COUNT I AGAINST DEFENDANT CORRIGAN AND DENYING DEFENDANT HARTSFIELD'S MOTION TO DISMISS (Doc. 63) AND GRANTING DEFENDANT'S HOLBROOK'S AND TURNER'S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT (Doc. 64)

AVERN COHN, District Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION

This is a civil rights case under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The claims arise out of an incident at Comerica Park where the plaintiff father inadvertently gave his 7–year–old plaintiff son a “Mike's Hard Lemonade,” an alcoholic beverage, at a Tiger game. A series of events then took place which resulted in the plaintiff son being placed in foster care over a weekend.

Plaintiffs are Christopher Ratté and Claire Zimmerman, the plaintiff child's parents, and minor child Leo Ratté. Plaintiffs are suing:

The City of Detroit and Detroit Police Department Officers Celeste Reed, Scott Hall, and Richard Knox (the City of Detroit defendants) ¹;

Maura Corrigan (Corrigan) in her official capacity as Director of the Michigan Department of Human Services (DHS);

Sualyn Holbrook (Holbrook) in her individual capacity as former Placement Resource 24–Hour Unit Supervisor in the Wayne County office of the Michigan DHS;

Cherita Turner–Royster (Turner–Royster) in her individual capacity as former Child Protective Services Supervisor in the 24–Hour Unit of the Wayne County office of the Michigan DHS; and

Third Judicial Circuit Court Judge Judy Hartsfield (Hartsfield) in her individual capacity.²

The first amended complaint (Doc. 51) is in four counts:

Count I

Declaratory Judgment that Mich. Ct. R. 3.963(A) and Mich. Comp. Laws § 712A.14(1) are facially unconstitutional, and unconstitutional as applied to plaintiffs

Count II

Fourteenth Amendment Violation—Substantive Due Process (All defendants)

Count III

Fourteenth Amendment Violation—Procedural Due Process (All defendants)

Count IV

Fourth Amendment Violation—Unlawful Seizure (All defendants)

Now before the Court is Hartsfield's motion to dismiss (Doc. 63). Also before the Court is defendants Corrigan's, Holbrook's and Turner–Royster's motion for summary judgment (Doc. 64). The Court heard oral argument on the motions on Wednesday, November 13, 2013.

At the hearing, the Court expressed its concern whether it has discretion to issue a declaratory judgment and required the parties to provide supplemental briefing on the matter. The parties have submitted their supplemental briefs (Docs. 84, 85). For the reasons stated on the record at the hearing, count I of the first amended complaint seeking a declaratory judgment against Corrigan is SEVERED from the remaining claims. The Court will issue a separate written decision relating to count I.

For the reasons that follow, Hartsfield's motion to dismiss is DENIED and Holbrook's and Turner–Royster's (the DHS defendants) motion for summary judgment is GRANTED. The claims against the DHS defendants are DISMISSED. The case proceeds against Hartsfield in regards to counts II through IV.

II. BACKGROUND

On Saturday, April 5, 2008, Christopher Ratté (Ratté), a classical archeology professor at the University of Michigan, attended a Tigers game at Comerica Park with his seven year-old son Leo. Before arriving at their seats, Ratté purchased Leo a Mike's Hard Lemonade not knowing that it contained alcohol, believing it to be an ordinary lemonade. Ratté testified at his deposition that he would not have given the drink to Leo had he known that it contained alcohol.

Ratté and Leo took the beverage with them to their seats at which time Leo drank some of it. After Leo drank some of the beverage, Ratté and Leo were approached by Sean Davidson (Davidson), a Comerica Park security person who observed Leo with the beverage. Davidson generated an incident report explaining what happened next. In the report, Davidson wrote:

After being informed of a man possibly giving alcohol to a boy I observed them for some time. Section 124 row 26. I observed the child drink from the Mike's Hard Lemonade bottle. I approached the adult guest and asked if he was giving alcohol to the child. He claimed to not know the drink was alcoholic. I then confiscated the Mike's Hard Lemonade bottle the boy drank from and called dispatch for assistance. When help came the man and child were escorted to police detail.

Police officers and medical personnel were present at the sub-station. Leo was examined by two nurses. It was noted that Leo had nausea and urination, but that he was alert and awake, asking questions, and attentive.

After being examined by the nurses at the sub-station, Leo was taken to Children's Hospital by ambulance. Ratté originally objected to Leo being taken to the hospital, but he eventually consented. Ratté rode in the ambulance with Leo and the medical personnel. There were no police officers in the ambulance.

When the ambulance arrived at Children's Hospital, Leo was examined by a resident physician and Dr. Usha Sethuraman, the attending physician, while Ratté was present. In a medical report Sethuraman stated that Leo

was found drinking a Mike's Hard Lemonade, which apparently contains 5% alcohol. Dad claims that he did not know that this was an alcoholic beverage. According to the report that I got from the physician at the scene is [sic] the child probably took about three-quarters of a bottle, close to about 10 to 12 ounces. He had a little bit of nausea at the site. Accu–Chek done at the site was normal. Ingestion was somewhere between 4 and 6:30, Dad is not clear about the time. After that, his nausea has gotten better. Currently he is asymptomatic.

Sethuraman's report noted that there was no trace of alcohol in Leo's blood.

Before Leo's blood test results were returned, Detroit Police Department Officer Celeste Reed (Reed) arrived at Children's Hospital. Reed says she observed Leo to be “flushed in the face” and “giggling.” This was Reed's first contact with Leo and his parents as she was not at the ballpark. Reed in her deposition stated that she spoke with her sergeant, Richard Knox, and explained to him what she saw. Reed then left the hospital while Ratté and Leo were still there and drove to the DHS facility on 2929 Russell Street, which is also the Child Abuse Unit of the Detroit Police Department (the Russell Street facility). At the Russell Street facility, Reed filled out a Complaint and Request for Action ³ and faxed one copy to the Family Division of the Wayne County Circuit Court (the family court) located at a separate building, and another copy to DHS, which is also in a separate building. On the Complaint and Request for Action form, Reed checked the box requesting “an order be issued to take the child into protective custody pending a preliminary hearing pursuant to MCR 3.963(B).” Reed said in the complaint:

On Saturday, April 5, 2008, at approximately 7:30 p.m., Officer Hall from Central District, working Comerica Park, Tiger game, was notified by security that the Defendant Christopher Ratte W/M/47 purchased a Mike's Hard Lemonade & gave it to [Leo] to drink. [Leo] drank approximately 3/4 of the bottle of Lemonade. Medic 31 ... conveyed [Leo] to Children's Hospital for medical treatment. [Leo] was seen by Dr. Sethuraman ..., stable condition. [I] observed [Leo] to be intoxicated.

Reed did not return to Children's Hospital after completing and submitting the Complaint and Request for Action.

After the Complaint and Request for Action was submitted to DHS and the family court, Janet Williams (Williams), a DHS employee who is no longer a party to this action, prepared a Petition for Child Protective Proceedings ⁴. Williams faxed the form to the family court for review. In the petition, Williams requested that Leo be removed from the custody of his parents, plaintiffs Ratté and Zimmerman.

Subsequent to the family court receiving the Complaint and Request for Action and Petition for Child Protective Proceedings, and while Ratté and Leo were still at Children's Hospital,⁵ an Order To Place/Consent To Emergency Treatment Pending Preliminary Hearing ⁶ was docketed by the family court, bearing Judge Hartsfield's signature. It was later learned that what was docketed was not actually signed by Hartsfield at the time it was docketed, and that she did not have any involvement in what was docketed. Rather, Hartsfield had left forms of pre-signed orders at the family court and a probation officer on duty after hours filled in the form and then filed them with her signature.

The form order stated:

It appears to the Court upon the filing of a petition, together with further proofs required by the Court, that there are reasonable grounds for removal of the minor(s) from the parent, guardian, or legal custodian by this Court in compliance with MCL 712A.2, MCR 3.933(B), MCR 3.963(B), or MCR 3.983 because conditions or surroundings of the child(ren) are such as to endanger the health, safety, or welfare of the child(ren) and it is contrary to the welfare of the child(ren) to remain in the home because there is probable cause to believe that Father was said to have bought his seven year old son a [sic] alcoholic beverage while at the baseball game. According to officer Reed, child was observed to be under the...